


All the Things You Learn in Therapy

by FightTheFandoms



Category: South Park
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Angst, Binge Eating Disorder, Bullying, Child Neglect, Drug Abuse, Eating Disorders, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Sexual Assault, Internalized Homophobia, M/M, Multi, Past Child Abuse, Past Sexual Assault, Self-Harm, Slow Burn, Underage Drinking, Underage Smoking
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-28
Updated: 2020-09-18
Packaged: 2021-03-04 03:33:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,235
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24963070
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FightTheFandoms/pseuds/FightTheFandoms
Summary: After one of Cartman’s schemes goes too far for the rest of his class to handle, they get him sent to a facility for mental health treatment during their seventh grade year. They assumed he would only be in there a few months, but then, months turned into three years. Everyone assumed that he was never coming back to South Park, until he showed up their first day of eleventh grade.~Self-indulgent Kyman reconnection fic
Relationships: Clyde Donovan/Bebe Stevens, Craig Tucker/Tweek Tweak, Kenny McCormick/Leopold "Butters" Stotch, Kyle Broflovski/David Rodriguez, Kyle Broflovski/Eric Cartman, Red/Heidi Turner, Sophie Gray/Scott Malkinson, Stan Marsh/Wendy Testaburger, Token Black/Nichole Daniels
Comments: 14
Kudos: 98





	1. Things Change Within Three Years

Was he expecting a big welcome back party when he walked into the front doors of South Park High? Absolutely not. However, everyone seemed to just ignore the fact that he was there. He had slimmed down during his long institution stay, mostly because he was diagnosed with binge eating disorder so the nurses were extremely diligent in making sure he was only eating what and how much he was supposed to. However, that shouldn’t be enough to make people not recognize him though. After all, his heterochromia should make him one of the more easily recognizable kids in South Park.

Eric Cartman walked to his assigned locker, hoping to see any of his old friends, or at least someone he hung out with. That’s when he noticed that next to his locker stood a tall figure with a familiar blue chullo covering the black hair that was peaking out from underneath. Next to the tall figure was a slightly shorter figure with blonde messy hair that was ranting about something. That frantic voice was hard to mistake even with the fact that it had gotten slightly deeper over the years.

“No- but like- GAH- what if- Uh I don’t know!” Yeah, that was definitely the ramblings of Tweek Tweak followed shortly by a kiss on the cheek from Craig Tucker.

“Believe it or not, you’re going to be fine this year. They wouldn’t have put you in the advance placement classes if you couldn’t handle it. Have you talked to your therapist about it?”

Eric tried not to listen to the rest of their clearly private conversation, but they were halfway standing in front of his locker and he really needed to get some of the random things out of his heavy backpack. “Uh, hey, Tweek... Craig... Can I get to my locker?”

The couple stepped out of the way, not even glancing at the quiet teen. “Yeah, man, sorry about that. He’s having one of his-“ That’s when Craig actually looked at who he was talking to. “Eric Cartman?”

“GAH- I thought you weren’t coming back to South Park!” Tweek blurted out, not really thinking about how insensitive that could sound to other people.

“No, it was always the plan for me to return to South Park after being released...” Cartman could practically feel them hanging onto every word that spilled out of his mouth. “My stay was just longer than expected...” with that he didn’t want to talk anything else relating to the institution, yet the words kept building up in his throat ready for a good excuse to break free.

“Well, how are you feeling? I was only in a rehab center like two months, so I can’t imagine how things are for you trying to readjust to everything.” Tweek was the worse person to talk to if you’re hoping for someone to not prod and ask questions.

“I feel-“ How did he feel? That was a loaded question. Better? Not really. Alone? That was too broad of an answer. Scared of how everyone will react to him being back? Oh definitely. “I feel like everyone is going to expect the same Eric Cartman that was sent to the hospital.”

Tweek opened his mouth to reply before the bell rang loud throughout the hallway.

~~~

Cartman was a little disappointed that he didn’t have any morning classes with Tweek and Craig. Despite them not being the closest when he left, Tweek seemed to feel some kind of empathy for Cartman as someone else that spent time institutionalized, however his stay was so much shorter than Cartman’s because he actually wanted help. Tweek knew he had a problem going into the program. It took nearly nine months for Cartman to get a full grasp that his mental health wasn’t stable enough for him to be considered safe around anyone other than trained specialists, and even then, he still fought with the doctors and nurses any chance he had.

He spent his first two classes with no one that he recognized, probably knew them in elementary or middle school but not well enough to remember them after three years being gone. However, he did recognize someone in his third hour class. Sitting next to the window in advanced placement world history, was Kyle Broflovski.

Cartman’s feelings for the red head were, to put it simply, complicated. They always fought growing up, and, in fact, it was Kyle that rallied the class together to get Cartman sent to the hospital with one of his infamous speeches. The larger boy wanted to kill Kyle the day he was leaving South Park, cursing his name and his heritage was only the minor things he did. He threw a rock through Kyle’s bedroom window, he keyed his mom’s car to have a huge dick scratched into the side, then finally, in blood red spray paint, he sprayed “DIRTY FUCKING JEWS” on their garage door. That only added to his long list of instances his psychiatrist had to speak with him about.

Talking about Kyle to his therapist should’ve been the easiest thing to talk about. He hated Kyle with every cell in his body, yet Dr. Milner didn’t believe that. He spent nearly two weeks on them talking about his “hatred” for Kyle Broflovski. At the end of those two weeks, Cartman had a hard but honest revelation presented to him. He didn’t hate Kyle.

He was in love with him.

Dr. Milner claimed that Cartman was terrified of his feelings due to internalized homophobia so instead of act on them, he acted against them. Cartman remembered being so mad when he was told that, that he broke the doors lock trying to get out of the doctor’s office. The next day when he went back for his daily session no more anger existed. He had come to terms that Dr. Milner was right. Eric Cartman was in love with the boy he constantly harassed their entire lives.

And now that boy is sitting in a desk next to the window of Cartman’s history class, looking bored as he pushed his thick red curls away from his eyes. Those damn emerald green eyes. He felt sick to his stomach when he saw his old friend/enemy. A small part of him wanted to skip this class, but knew that if he got into any trouble, his therapist would be told. So instead of leave, he sat all the way in the back of the room away from Kyle in hopes that he could just pretend the ginger wasn’t there.

Their teacher entered the classroom and started introducing himself, not like Cartman heard a word. His heart was beating so hard that’s all he could focus on, the strong thumping ringing in his ears. Then the worst possible sentence brought him back into the quiet noises of the classroom, “Alright, when I call your name, raise your hand so I can learn who you are.”

As each name got called out Cartman held his breath as he hoped that his name somehow didn’t make it on the list. He heard Kyle’s name get called but refused to look at his childhood friend. He let out a breath he didn’t realize he was holding when the teacher called out, “Eric Cartman”.

Just like that he felt green eyes on him. He looked slowly at Kyle to see an equally confused and surprised expression as Cartman slowly raised his hand. Even after his hand was back down and their teacher continued to call names, their eyes never left each other’s. Finally, their eye contact broke when their teacher finished calling out names and starting going over the syllabus for the class. Cartman wanted to crawl into a hole because he knew as soon as the bell rang Kyle would make a beeline toward his desk.

~~~

After what felt like the longest hour of his life, the bell finally rang. In the next second he considered grabbing his stuff and fast as possible and running out the room. Before he could actually decide to do that or not, a rather tall, lanky figure with red hair made its way to his desk.

“Uh, Cartman, everyone assumed you hated us too much to come back to South Park. How did Denver treat you?” The question was as casual as the taller boy could make it as he watched Eric Cartman, the boy who he despised his entire childhood, anxiously look away from him.

“Like any other patient at a mental institution,” Cartman tried to regain his confidence he had three years ago by adding some venom to his words, only it came out sounding more defensive and sad then snarky and mean. 

“Look, you were never supposed to be gone three years-“

“Kyle,” There it was. The venom that his undeniably unique voice held so well. When he looked up and saw that it worked to get Kyle more on edge than concerned, he continued. “You wouldn’t happen to have PE next hour would you?”

Kyle relaxed his shoulders and nodded, “Just about all the boys in eleventh grade have it next hour.”

“Great...”

~~~

No one could’ve prepared Kyle to see him childhood frenemy after three years of the obnoxious boy being noticeably absent. For the first few months it was nice. Weird situations still happened often (what else would you expect from the infamous mountain town) but without Cartman’s constant schemes, the entire fourth grade seem to get bored. Everyone equally agreed that when Cartman came back there would be hell to pay for them sending him off. He would walk into school and tear each and everyone of them apart.

That didn’t happen though. Eric Cartman was quietly walking beside him toward the gymnasium with this blank look on his face that seemed out of place for the boy that was known to be extremely emotional. Studying the shorter teen, Kyle noticed how much thinner Cartman had become. “Dude, I can’t deal with this silence. Are you mad at us?”

“I was.” The answer was quick and short, and Kyle was expecting that to be all he got out of Cartman until the brunette continued. “It took awhile for me to realize that I needed to go to the institution, but when I finally did I was kinda grateful. Whether it was because our class cared about their own safety or actually cared about me, it had to be done.”

“I think it was a mixture of both. We were scared after the incident, but we also could tell that there was something going on with you as well.” Cartman hated the way Kyle was talking again, the sympathy made his heart flutter in a way that it shouldn’t.

Cartman stopped right in front of the gym entrance. “Kyle, I have to do this because my therapist is literally making me.” A deep, shaky breath escaped his suddenly dry throat. “I’m sorry for everything. I don’t want to be the same Eric Cartman that got kicked out of South Park. I understand now why I was the way I was, and I think I can control it.”

What the hell was Kyle supposed to say to that? He guessed he wasn’t supposed to say anything because Cartman just turned away and walked into the gym.


	2. The Train that Hits Hard

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m sorry, guys. I literally rewrote this chapter like 12 times because I hated every attempt. I’m so sorry it’s short but I needed to just get at least something posted so you guys didn’t think I wasn’t going to update.

“Tell me about your friends and classmates back home in South Park.” Dr. Milner seemed genuinely intrigued as he sat across from the teen. “I want to know your relationships with them.”

“Well...” Friends? “I was closest with Kyle, Stan, and Kenny... Butters hung out with a lot as well...”

“And did you all get along?”

“You know this already. They’re my best friends in the world, but I always started fights with them. I know that’s in your notes.” Cartman sounded bored as he tried his best not to think about his old friends. The thought had haunted him for a while now.

What if he never see them again?

“You’re admitting that you were the one instigating. That’s progress... What about your other male classmates?”

“Well, I mean, the only other ones that I actually hung with were Craig and those guys.” Cartman seemed to get a little uncomfortable. Fuck, he missed those assholes a little as well.

“Tell me about them.”

“There’s Craig and his boyfriend Tweek-“

“Did you have a problem with them being homosexuals?”

“We joked about it because that’s what we do, but no, I didn’t care about them being gay. Anyway, there was also Token, Clyde, and Jimmy. We also hung out with Scott and David.” He was so mean to just about all of them all the time. He needed a chance to tell them he was sorry.

“And the girls in your class?” Dr Milner was writing something, but Cartman couldn’t see what he was writing. “Did you ever hang out with them?”

“Not really? Wendy always inserted herself into hangouts, dragging Bebe along sometimes, but all the other girls didn’t really like to hang around a guys.”

Don’t ask about-

“I see here that you had an on and off girlfriend, Heidi Turner? Tell me about your relationship with her.”

Fuck.

Cartman balled his fists at the mention of sweetest girl in their class. He was fucking awful to her. He treated her like shit. They tried to kill each other. It was all his fault.

“Mr. Cartman-“

“No! Fuck your you’re just a bastard with a doctorate. How dare you bring her up! You knew that shit would piss me off!” Heidi is a sweetheart. She needed someone after all the cyber bullying, and Cartman took advantage of that. He even managed to convince everyone that she was the crazy bitch and the one at fault for how bad their relationship became.

“I can’t help you if you don’t talk to me.”

Help? He wasn’t helping, but Cartman still started to talk. “Heidi... she deserved someone better then me. She still does. I didn’t like her the way she liked me, but she tried to break up with me for- for Kyle.” His teeth were showing as he clenched his jaw hard enough for it to hurt. “How can I- I can’t fix all the damage I did to her when we were kids.”

“You could always start by apologizing.”

~~~

“What class are the girls in right now?” The sudden question startled Kyle as they previously walked silently to the boy’s locker.

“Uhhhh... I think just about all of them have lunch this hour- David!” Kyle beamed as he locked eyes with their taller classmate. “Uh- um... Cartman is back.”

David Rodriguez stares at Cartman with a confused look as he walked up to them. “Hey, guys, everyone else in the locker room getting changed. I’m sure they’ll be... excited... when they see you.” The way he said ‘excited’ clearly meant that he did not believe everyone would be excited. Not to mention, the glance he gave Kyle clearly meant he wasn’t excited either.

That didn’t bother Cartman very much, but then, David leaned close to Kyle ear and whispered into it. As soon as Cartman saw the blush and smile that spread across Kyle’s face, he angrily turned around and left the gym.

~~~

Kyle wasn’t quite sure why Cartman left the gym, but he’d be lying if he said that he wad glad. A small part of him wanted to call out to Cartman, but the other part wanted to stay quiet and pretend like it didn’t happen.

That was the part that was glad he was next to David. The part that wanted to stare into caramel brown eyes for the rest of his life. David was everyone the red hair could want. Smart. Compassionate. Sincere. So what exactly is the problem? Well, to everyone in South Park Kyle Broflovski is straight. He even convinced himself that he was straight up until about a year ago. He caught himself staring at David perfect lips at a party, and the fact hit him like a train.

A very large, gay train.

Well, he had a sneaking suspicion that he may be gay back in middle school when Stan had stuck them some of his dad’s red wine and they got drunk at the park. Stan has started talking about Wendy and a few other girls at school, but Kyle’s brain kept wondering to a few boys at school before finally settling on calling Red’s ass “fucking sweet”. Thankfully, Stan was too drunk to tell that his best friend was lying.

Kyle used to think he had a crush on Cartman because of how much he missed him, but that absurd. He had David right in front of him. Someone who’s kind to everyone and is such an amazing friend. Better than Cartman has ever been.

~~~

Cartman’s eyes filled with tears as he pushed his way through the hallway toward PC Principle’s office. He could tell people were looking at him, but he couldn’t care. He felt like his world was crashing down, and the only way he knew how to fix it was to lash out. That’s not the kinda person he wants to be anymore. He wants to be a better person.

“Eric?” The voice pulled him away from his flooding thoughts and emotions, and he looked at the hand gripping his arm. Then he looked up to the face of the person holding onto him. Heidi Turner. Brown hair flowing over her shoulders and brown eyes placed perfectly on her soft, round face. “I heard you were back, but why are you crying? Are you not adjusting well?”

“Heidi...” The tears stopped as he realized what was happening. Heidi Turner who had barely talked to him for years was worried about him. She was being the sweetest girl in school like always. “I don’t know how to deal with what I’m feeling...”

“Come with me to lunch. You can talk to the girls.” She smiled the most sincere smile he’s seen in a while.

“Alright.”


	3. The Secrets We Shared

Under normal circumstances, the girls wouldn’t have even paid any attention to Eric Cartman, but instead of ignore him they let him join them at their lunch table. Not only was he surprised with their kindness, he felt so grateful to have them comforting him.

“I’m sure it’s been hard readjusting to school after being gone so long.” Bebe stroked Cartman’s broad shoulders as the brunette sniffled and hiccuped.

“Let it all out, Eric.” Heidi sat on the other side of him and wiped the few tears falling down his chubby cheeks with a napkin.

“Can you tell us what happened?” Nichole was reaching cross the table and had a hand on top of his. The only one that seemed wary of Cartman was Wendy who watched his movements carefully.

“I just wasn’t ready for-“ He gulped hard and a broken sob left his throat. That’s when Wendy’s expression softened. He wasn’t faking. “Are Kyle and David dating?”

All the girls stared at Eric Cartman with confused expressions. The question seemed to come out of nowhere. A few “no’s” and “I don’t think so’s” escaped their lips.

Cartman knew that they were waiting for an explanation. There was no way they would let him leave without an explanation. Even the brief relief of hearing that Kyle and David aren’t a couple wasn’t enough to help ease the fear of having to admit his crush to the nosiest group of women on the face of earth.

Honestly, he wasn’t sure exactly what about the situation set him off. Maybe it just never occurred to him that Kyle could be dating someone. Maybe it was the idea that Kyle was straight. If Kyle was Gay, than it’s be more real. The fact that nothing Cartman does to fix their friendship would lead to them being together. The fact that they will never be together because Cartman is and has always been an awful person. Kyle being straight meant that Cartman could lie to himself. Tell himself that Kyle just doesn’t like dudes.

But the way he looked at David was enough proof for Cartman to know the truth.

“My psychiatrist said that I’m-“ His throat felt dry and itchy. His face burned. “I’m in love with Kyle?” He had pronounced Kyle’s name wrong for so long that it sounded weird to hear him pronounce it correctly. Like someone was forcing him to say Kyle’s name like that.

“Since when are you gay?” Red Tucker was sitting next to Heidi with a look of complete disbelief. “How do we know any of what he’s saying is true? He’s claim to be a better person a million times and every time it’s a trick. He knew you would check on his fake crying,” A quick glance with Heidi was exchanged as she stood up. “But he didn’t even bother to come up with a good lie.” They all seemed to become on guard again, pulling away their Comforting hands from him.

“Red I-“

“No, fatass,” The infamous nickname that, honestly, he was surprised he hadn’t been called yet. “Do you really expect us to trust you? We’ve been through so much as a class because of everything you’ve done. We’ve had to watch Heidi become a monster because of you. You’ve tried to kill us all at least once. You’ve even lied about being in love with Kyle before to keep him from dating Nichole.” She looked around the table angrily.

“Red, can we at least hear what he has to say before we disregard the possibility that he’s better now after years in an institution?” Wendy Testaburger defending Eric Cartman? Who would’ve thought?

Despite clearly still being angry, Red closed her mouth and sat back down, holding Heidi hand protectively.

“Thank you, Wendy... I uh- can’t apologize for everything I’ve done, but I think I’m better now. I still don’t know how to handle my emotions, but I know that I can’t just lash out everytime things go my way.” He sighed and looked over at Heidi. “I’m sorry, Heidi, I really am. Everything I did to you was awful. You loved me when everyone else told you not to, and I took it for granted.” He quickly looked away, scared of any response. “And Nichole, I genuinely thought what I was doing was right. Your relationship was none of my business, and I had no right to meddle with it.”

It took a few minutes for him to collect himself. It was easy since none of the girls were looking at him either. He just stared at the floor as he finally sighed loudly. “And I am in love with Kyle, but I know that I can’t take back everything I did to him as kids. I was just so scared of the rejection,” Fuck, a sob came out when he said that. “It’s a stupid excuse, but it’s the truth. My mom made me so scared of being gay that I pretended to be straight. I pretended to hate Kyle. I think that may be why I also was so awful to you, Heidi. I was scared of how much you cared.”

All the girls just stared at him blankly. It made sense, but they weren’t really sure if it was the truth. Finally, Heidi wrapped her arms around Cartman and squeezed tight. This surprised everyone, but soon enough all the girls joined. One by one they followed Heidi’s lead and created a group hug around the most hated kid in South Park. Well, maybe not the most hated anymore.

~~~  
  


Eric Cartman has always been a sexist, racist, anti-Semitic, ableist asshole, and yet Kyle didn’t seem angry about him being back in South Park.

David sat in the bleachers and listened as Kyle talked about how shocking it was to see Eric in his history class. How he looked so different and exactly the same at the same time. How he felt like maybe Eric had actually changed during his hospital stay. Frankly, it was the weirdest thing David had ever witnessed living in South Park.

“I wonder why he flipped out when he came into the gym with you.” Stan, who had been half listening to the conversation, asked as he aimlessly tossed a basketball between himself and Kenny.

”Maybe he was scared to see everyone after so long.” Tweek added as he sat down next to David. “It was terrifying for me to see everyone when I came back from the hospital.”

“Yeah, he was probably just being a little pussy like Tweek,” Kenny laughed through his face mask before being slapped in the back of the head by Craig. “What!”

“But he was fine with talking to Kyle of all people? He’s probably off planning some kind of scheme to get us back and didn’t want to mess it up or something.” Stan added with an eye roll.

Their group went silent as they stood around thinking of all the possibilities.

“You ladies ready to play some basketball?” Clyde called from the other side of the gym. Their conversation ended as the two teams joined to start their game. Kyle and David were the last to join as David gave Kyle’s shoulder a firm squeeze.

”I know you want to think he’s changed, but let’s be reasonable,” His tone turned cold. “It’s Eric fucking Cartman.”

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry this took way too long for such a short chapter, but life is crazy. Recently got married and had to deal with moving during covid which hasn’t been fun.


End file.
